PORTLAND — The Portland Winterhawks had nine different multi-point performances — including hat tricks by Kyle Chyzowski and Gabe Klassen — to a resounding 11-1 victory over the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Portland (7-1-0) has won seven consecutive Western Hockey League games.
It’s the team’s first double-digit goal night since Feb. 16, 2020, and the first time two Winterhawks have recorded three or more goals in the same game since March 10, 2012, when Brad Ross and Nic Petan pulled off the feat.
Four first-period goals buoyed the Hawks’ attack from the get-go.
Chyzowski opened the scoring with a breakaway just 1:43 into the contest, and while Brandon pushed back with a tying tally five minutes later, Portland’s forwards stayed hot.
Josh Davies scored at 8:03 for a 2-1 Portland lead, then a Jack O’Brien strike and a second from Chyzowski in the dying minutes of the period — just 36 seconds apart — stretched the lead to 4-1.
Portland put in five goals in the second period to blow the game out.
First, a stretch pass from Luca Cagnoni bounced off the end wall to the front of the net for a streaking Diego Buttazzoni to deposit at 3:40. Six minutes later, it was Klassen’s turn to light the lamp with a deflection of Cagnoni’s point shot, followed shortly after by a Chyzowski deflection to complete his hat trick.
Davies and Klassen then tacked on two more — each player’s second of the game — before the end of the second period to make it 9-1 Portland.
Klassen to capped off the team’s second hat trick of the night in the third period, then a goal by Buttazzoni brought the Hawks into double digits.
Portland goalie Jan Špunar finished with 12 saves on 13 shots through two periods, with fellow Hawks goalie Luke Brunen stopping all five shots that came his way in the third period.
The Winterhawks now hit the road for a 2,700-mile road trip over the next four weeks, starting Saturday at Everett.
Then Portland begins an Eastern Conference swing Oct. 27-Nov. 10 with stops in Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Lethbridge, Kamloops and Vancouver.
